Britannia's Vanguard: Great Britain & The V-Bomber Force

Emerging victorious from the Second World War, the British Royal Air Force ended the war against Nazi Germany and her Axis allies in May of 1945, with a seasoned policy of using massive four engined heavy bombers to conduct raids in masse against hostile centers. This policy utilized by RAF Bomber Command, which had laid waste to the German cities of Duisburg and Brunswick during the war and severally crippled the German war industry was carried on into the postwar years. The piston four engined Avro Lancaster heavy bomber which was the pride of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command during the war was upgraded to become the Avro Lincoln and pressed into service in August 1945 to be the last piston engined bomber used by the RAF. Even as the Lincolns were used against the Mau Mau uprisings in Kenya and against the Communist insurgency in Malaya, elements in the RAF and the British government sought to capitalize on and adopt new nuclear weapons and advances in aviation technology to introduce more potent and effective means of conducting aerial warfare. Earlier in November of 1944, the British Chiefs of Staff had requested a report from Sir Henry Tizard on potential future means of conducting warfare. Unaware of the progresses made in the United States with the Manhattan Project, in July 1945 the Tizard Committee urged the large scale development of atomic energy research. The Committee foresaw the potential of harnessing the devastating effects of atomic weapons and envisioned fleets of high flying jet powered bombers cruising at speeds of 500 mph (800 km/h) at altitudes of 40,000 ft (12,000 m). The logic behind the thinking was that potential aggressors may be deterred by the knowledge that Britain would retaliate with atomic weapons if attacked.

With the German V-2 rocket bringing about the dawn of a new era in warfare, there were military analysists who could see that guided missile technology would eventually make strategic aircraft vulnerable, but development of such missiles was proving difficult, and fast and high flying bombers were likely to serve on for years to come before there was a need for something better. The need for massed formations of bombers would be made unnecessary if a single bomber could carry weaponry capable of destroying an entire city or military installation. For the program to become a reality it would have to be a large bomber, since afterall the first generation of nuclear weapons were large and heavy. Such a large and advanced bomber would be expensive on a unit basis, but would also be produced in much smaller quantities. With the rise of the Soviet threat and the arrival of the Cold War, British military planners realized the need to modernize Great Britain's forces. Furthermore, the United Kingdom's uncertain military relationship with the United States, particularly in the immediate postwar years when American sentiments of  isolationism made a short-lived comeback, led the UK to conclude it needed its own strategic nuclear strike force.

After taking into consideration and formulating various specifications for such an advanced jet bomber project in late 1946, the British Air Ministry issued a request in January 1947 for an advanced jet bomber that would be at least the equal of anything available in the United States or Soviet Union's arsenal. The request followed guidelines developed from the earlier Air Ministry Specification B.35/46, which proposed for a 'medium-range bomber landplane, capable of carrying one 10,000 pound (4,535 kg) bomb to a target at a distance of 1,500 nautical miles (2,775 km) from a base which may be anywhere in the world.' The request also indicated that the fully loaded takeoff weight should not exceed 100,000 pounds (45,400 kg), though this would be adjusted upward in practice; that the bomber should have a cruise speed of 500 knots (925 km/h); and that it have a service ceiling of 50,000 feet (15,200 m). The Royal Air Force's mainstay jet bomber, the then-current English Electric Canberra had been introduced in May 1951 and designed during the Second World War but could only have reached the Soviet border and had a limited capacity of 6,000 lb (2,720 kg).

This finalized request went to most of the United Kingdom's major aircraft manufacturers with the Handley Page and Avro firms both coming up with very advanced designs for the RAF's bomber competition. The design proposals would ultimately become the crescent winged Handley Page Victor and the delta winged Avro Vulcan respectively. The Air Staff decided to award devlopment and production contracts to both companies as insurance against one of the designs being deemed a failure. Work on the Victor began in November 1947 and the Vulcan in January 1948. As a further insurance measure against both radical designs failing, in July 1947 the Air Ministry issued Specification B.9/48 written around Vickers-Armstrongs' more conservative design, which would later be named Valiant and work on this project began in April 1948. In August 1947 the Short Brothers PLC  aerospace company also received a contract for the Short Sperrin SA.4 based on the earlier less-stringent Specification B.14/4 with work beginning in November 1947.

The Short Sperrin would ultimately be cancelled in late 1949, but work on the three new aircraft now christened the 'V Bombers' continued. The term V Bomber was developed and used for the Royal Air Force as all the names of the new aircraft all started with the letter "V" and which were known collectively as the V-class. While more expensive than the American approach of building one bomber design per category, the RAF insisted on having multiple choices. Air Chief Marshal Sir John Slessor came to believe that had the Royal Air Force been forced into choosing among the three British bombers under development in the late 1930: the Avro Manchester, Short Stirling, and Handley Page Halifax it would have utlimately chosen the wrong one and hindered Britain's ability to employ an effective nuclear deterrent.

The development of the V Bomber force was also seen as a measure of gaining British military independence from it's American ally, the primary nation that dominated NATO.

The Vickers Valiant took its first flight in 1951 and went into full scaleproduction as the first V Bomber in 1955. The Valiant entered RAF service in 1955, followed by the Avro Vulcan in 1956 and the Handley Page Victor in April 1958, with the first Valiant squadron, No. 138 Squadron RAF standing up at RAF Gaydon in 1955, and the first Vulcan squadron, No. 83, standing up at RAF Waddington in May 1957. The first operational Victor squadron was No. 10 Squadron RAF Cottesmore in April 1958. The Valiant which entered service first was equipped with nuclear weapons supplied by the United States under Project E, which supplemented the British Blue Danube and later Red Beard weapons systems. The American weapons supplied under Project E were not available for the RAF to use as part of the UK's national nuclear deterrent; only British owned weapons could be utilized for that purpose. Although often referred to as part of the V Force, the Valiants were actually assigned to SACEUR as part of Britain's Tactical Bomber Force, although remaining nominally part of the RAF Bomber Command. The Vulcan and Victor were armed with British built bombs such as the Blue Danube, Red Beard, Violet Club the Interim Megaton Weapon and Yellow Sun of both versions, the Mk1 and Mk.2.

Particular attention and emphasis was placed on the quick reaction and high maneuverability of the V Force aircraft, especially the Vulcan model B Mk. 2. The Vulcan in particular was specifically designed for the quick reaction response mission. The bomber could start all four of it's Olympus turbojet engines simultaneously with little ground support equipment necessary when remotely deployed to one of its dispersal airfields; and, at readiness state: 15 (fifteen minute alert), it would be airborne from less than 5000 feet of runway. The Avro Vulcan would never be caught on the ground, or be in need of one of the few, conspicuous, 10,000 foot runways that the American B-47 Stratjet or B-52 Stratofortress required for a fully fueled and loaded take-off. The Vulcan also did not need immediate or intermediate aerial refueling, after a fully loaded take off, needlessly delaying the execution of a strike mission. From the day of its deployment in the deterrent force, an on alert Vulcan was ready to launch, and strike, limited only by the readiness state established by her crew.

In service the V Force would have been capable of destroying both area and high value point targets including air bases, command centers and ground forces staging areas hours before they could be attacked by NATO or Strategic Air Command's long range bomber forces. RAF Bomber Command attrition attacks against air defense positions in Warsaw Pact nations and European Russia alone by the V-Force (in prosecuting their initial attacks upon the Soviet Union) would be decisive in ensuring that NATO and SAC follow on forces attacks would be successful in achieving the destruction of Soviet and Warsaw Pact targets. This “one-two-punch” by the UK’s RAF Bomber Command first; and then, NATO/SAC second; was the heart of the nuclear retaliatory attack strategy for the West in the early to mid Cold War period.

The immediate destruction of these targets, at the outset of a military campaign in western Europe would have had a two-fold benefit to NATO and the West in the defense of Western Europe. First, no Soviet/Warsaw Pact tactical follow on land-force reserves at Corps or Army-Group strength would have survived the RAF V Force tactical nuclear strikes in European Russia and the Warsaw Pact border states. Therefore, a Soviet “rush to the Channel” the perceived military advance from Western Poland & East German staging areas would have been denied the follow on forces which would have made the success of such an armored thrust possible. V Force Tactical Air elements would have destroyed both the forces in being, along with the communications infrastructure including bridges, roads, railways, air bases which would be necessary to support such a tactical movement. As such, the V Force by having the capability of precision tactical air medium bombardment effectively deterred the dominant armored overrun strategy, of the massed and massive Soviet & Warsaw Pact armies, which in theory, could have overwhelmed the vastly outnumbered NATO ground forces of central Europe in a surprise ground attack which did not give away tactical surprise, by use of organic tactical air support. This is why the V Force was extensively dedicated to radar navigation bombing and precision strike operations. In a theoretical nuclear war environment the V Force would attrit itself against the air defenses of high value point target complexes in European Russia. It would expend itself against air defense radar installallations, command & control centers; and air defense missile and aircraft bases. Once these targets had been identified, they would have been subject to what in essence would have been combined tactical nuclear weapons attacks by the V Force until they had all been identified and/or destroyed.

A White Paper produced by the Royal Air Force for the British government in 1961 theorized and claimed that the RAF's nuclear force was capable of destroying key Soviet cities such as Moscow and Kiev well before bomber aircraft from the United States' Strategic Air Command had entered Soviet airspace, "taking into account Bomber Command’s ability to be on target in the first wave several hours in advance of the main SAC force operating from bases in the mainland United States." Throughout the early stages of the Cold War, NATO relied on the Royal Air Forceas the primary force to threaten key cities in European Russia. RAF leadership concluded that the V Bomber force was capable of killing eight million Soviet citizens and wounding another eight million before American bombers had even reached their targets. At the time they entered service all three V bombers were capable of altitudes that put them effectively out of reach of the then contemporary cannon armed Soviet interceptors such as the Mikoyan Gurevich designed MiG-15 Fagot, MiG-17 Fresco, and later MiG-19 Famer.

In its early years, the British V bomber force relied on the concept of aircraft dispersal to escape the effects of an enemy attack on their main bases. There were 26 such bases in the late 1950s, in addition to the ten main bases: RAF Coningsby, RAF Cottesmore, RAF Finningley, RAF Gaydon, RAF Honington, RAF Marham, RAF Scampton, RAF Waddington, RAF Wittering (HQ RAF Bomber Command) and RAF Wyton; a total of 36 bases available for the V bomber force. In times of heightened international tension the V bomber force, already loaded with their nuclear weapons, would be flown to the dispersal bases where they could be kept at a few minutes readiness to take off, the bases being situated around the United Kingdom in such a way that a nuclear strike by an attacking state could not be guaranteed to completely knock out Britain's ability to retaliate. Apart from deployment to the bases during exercises, the most notably use was during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when at one point Avro Vulcans were lined up on the runways with engines running, at two minutes notice to take-off and proceed to their allocated targets.

All of the V Bombers would see active service in the RAF at least once albeit with conventional bombs rather than nuclear devices. The Vickers Valiant would see action in the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Handley Page Victor in the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation of 1962 through 1966, and the most famous the Avro Vulcan during the publicized Black Buck Raids in the Falklands War long after the strategic nuclear role had been passed over to the Royal Navy. In the deployment of nuclear weapons, only the Vickers Valiant would drop a nuclear device, as part of British tests.

Upon entering RAF service all three V bombers were initially painted in an overall silver finish, with the prominent under-nose H2S radomes on the Valiant and Vulcan left in black, however, this silver finish was later changed to one of anti-flash white, the RAF roundels being adjusted in shade, and made paler, to minimize the absorption of energy from the flash of a detonating nuclear device.

The development of effective anti-aircraft missiles capable of reaching extremely high altitudes by the Soviet Union for bringing down enemy aircraft made the deterrent threat delivered from bombers flying at high altitudes increasingly ineffective. In 1963 the British government decided to redevelop the use of the V bombers from high altitude strike platforms to performing low altitude operations instead. With the cancellation of the Blue Streak missile program and the cancellation of the American Skybolt system and with the Blue Steel missile already in service, six squadrons of Vulcan B2s were re-assigned to the low-level penetration role where they would operate at altitudes of 200 feet and lower and were re-equipped with the WE.177B strategic laydown bomb from 1966 until it was decided that deploying nuclear weapons by missile was more feasible and the Vulcans were replaced in the strategic nuclear strike role in 1969 by the Polaris missile to be launched from the Royal Navy's nuclear submarine fleet. The WE.177 equipped Vulcans were supplemented by the two Victor squadrons equipped with Blue Steel weapons since modified for low-level launch that continued to serve on in the strategic delivery role until 1968 ended.

In the low-level role, which had originally been intended to be performed by the cancelled BAC TSR-2, the V Force were considered by Air Staff planners to be largely immune from interception, with Soviet air defenses being assessed as having no significant interception capability below about 1,500 feet. Any remaining threats were deemed to be coming from the Soviet SA-3 low level surface to air missile, which resulted in flight planners taking great care to route low flying aircraft around known SA-3 missile sites. As a result of this maneuver, individual aircraft were calculated by operational planners to have a 90-95% chance of successfully delivering their weapon on the assigned targets. Although subsequently relieved of their role as the deliverer of the UK's strategic nuclear deterrent, the Vulcan squadrons continued to serve with the same WE.177B weapon in a low-level penetration role assigned to SACEUR for use in a tactical role in Western Europe. Six squadrons of Vulcans were still assigned this role with the WE.177 weapon in 1981. The last four remaining squadrons were about to disband in 1982 when called upon to assist in conflict in the South Atlantic: the Falklands.

With the change to low level operations the anti flash white scheme was altered to a disruptive pattern of grey and green upper surfaces, with light grey under surfaces. After reports from the Red Flag exercises in Nevada in the late 1970s that the light grey under surfaces became highly visible against the ground when the aircraft banked steeply at the low altitudes it was assigned to, the disruptive pattern was later continued to include the under surfaces as well on all Vulcans.

The Valiant was the first of the V Bombers to be removed from service as a nuclear bomber; taking on the role of an aerial refueling tanker and performing low level attack and photographic reconnaissance. Structural fatigue problems due to the transfer to low-level operations meant the Valiants were removed from service completely by 1965. The Victors were then converted to replace the Valiants as aerial refueling tankers. Only the Vulcan alone of the threesome, retained a nuclear delivery role until the end of their planned service life scheduled for 1982. The short extension as tankers until 1984 was an unexpected extension to meet operational emergencies. In addition to the roles they were designed for, all three V Bombers served as air to air refueling platforms at one time or another; the Valiant was the RAF's first large scale tanker. As a means of replacing the loss of the Valiant, Victor B.1s were converted into the AAR role. When the Victor was withdrawn from service as a bomber, a number of B.2s were then converted into tankers. Finally, due to delays in the entry into service of the TriStar, six Vulcan B.2s were converted into tankers, and served from 1982 to 1984.

Myasishchev Mischief: The Bison and the Bomber Gap

Barely a few years since the end of the Second World War, tensions are mounting between former allies as the United States and Soviet Union became increasingly distrustful of one another. The showdown between democracy and communism is beginning all across the globe as the Soviets expand their sphere of influence across eastern Europe and into Asia. With the Soviet detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949, the United States was on a higher state of alert in dealing with the Soviet Union. As the United States conducted the first test flight of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber in 1952, the Soviet Union responded by developing their own jet powered bomber designed to carry a destructive payload from the Soviet Union deep into the heart of North America. At the time, the only heavy bomber available to the Soviet Air Force was the Tupelov Tu-4 Bull which was a reverse engineered copy of the American B-29 Superfortress but the piston powered bomber was too slow for Soviet leaders who wanted a bomber propelled by jet engines to carry bombs into the United States. The task of designing and fielding such a bomber fell upon the Myasishchev Design Bureau. 

The Soviet design first took to the air in 1953 before being revealed to the public on May Day 1954, when the Myasishchev M-4 Molot or 'Hammer' flew over Moscow's Red Square. The existence of such an aircraft in the Soviet arsenal took the United States by surprise, completely unaware that the Soviets had been developing a jet bomber. The jet bomber was given the NATO reporting code of 'Bison' following the alliance's practice of issuing names to Soviet aircraft corresponding with the type of aircraft being identified. In July 1955, American observers saw 28 Bison bombers flying in two groups during a Soviet airshow at Tushino near northwestern Moscow. The United States government came to believe that the bomber had been placed in mass production for the Soviet Air Force, and the Central Intelligence Agency estimated that 800 Bisons would be on ready alert by the beginning of 1960. 

On 15 February 1954, aviation publication Aviation Week printed an article describing a new Soviet jet bomber capable of carrying a nuclear bomb to the United States mainland from their bases in deep in Soviet Russia. The aircraft they referred to was the Myasishchev M-4 Bison. Over the next year and a half these rumors were debated publicly in the press, and soon after in the United States Congress. Adding to the concerns was an infamous event in July 1955. At the Soviet Aviation Day demonstrations at the Tushino Airfield, ten Bison bombers were flown past the reviewing stand, then flew out of sight, quickly turned around, and flew past the stands again with eight more, presenting the illusion that there were 28 aircraft in the flyby. An elaborate deception formulated by Soviet military planners.

Western analysts calculated from the illusionary force of 28 aircraft, judged that by 1960 the Soviets would have 800. The classified estimates however, led American politicians to warn of a "bomber gap". The "bomber gap" was a term to define a belief that the Soviet Union had gained a strategic advantage in deploying jet-powered strategic bombers that were capable of attacking the United States. The concept was widely accepted for several years, and was used as a political talking point in order to justify a great increase in American defense spending. At the time, the USAF had just introduced its own strategic jet bomber, the B-52 Stratofortress, and the shorter ranged B-47 Stratojet which was still suffering from a variety of technical problems that limited its combat availability. USAF staff started pressing for accelerated production of the larger B-52 Stratofortress, but it also grudgingly accepted calls for expanded air defense.The Air Force was generally critical of spending effort on defense, having studied the results of the World War II bombing campaigns and concluding that Stanley Baldwin's pre-war thinking on the fruitlessness of air defense was correct: the bomber almost always did get through. Like the British, they concluded that money would better be spent on making the offensive arm larger, deterring an attack. The result was a production series consisting of thousands of aircraft. Over 2,000 B-47s and almost 750 B-52s were built to match the imagined fleet of Soviet aircraft.

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was skeptical of the perceived bomber gap idea from its inception. With no evidence to prove or disprove the logic, he agreed to the development of the Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady high altitude reconnaissance aircraft to provide an answer to the lingering question . The first U-2 flights started in 1956. On one early mission known as Mission 2020 flown by Martin Knutson on 4 July 1956, a U-2 flew over Engels airfield near Saratov and photographed 20 M-4 Bison bombers on the ramp. Multiplying by the number of Soviet bomber bases known to exist, the intelligence suggested the Soviets were already well on their way to deploying hundreds of aircraft. Ironically, the U-2 had actually photographed the entire Bison fleet; there wasn't a single bomber at any of the other bases. Similar missions over the next year finally demonstrated this beyond a doubt, and at least in official circles that the gap had been disproven. It was later learned that the Soviet Bison was unable to meet its original range goals and was limited to a range of roughly about 8,000 km. Unlike the United States, at that time the Soviets lacked overseas bases in the Western Hemisphere and therefore the M-4 would not be able to attack the US mainland and return to land at a friendly airbase. 

In the end it was not the Soviet Air Force (VVS) that wanted the Bison, but rather Naval Aviation (AV-MF). Though it could still not bomb Washington, D.C., the Bison had a sufficient range to fulfill the need for a long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft. In 1959, the 3M variant broke numerous world records; however, it was thought by the West (and would continue to be thought so until 1961) that the 3M variant was the original M-4, meaning that the capability of the M-4 was vastly overestimated by Western intelligence agencies.Interest in the Myasishchev Bison waned, and a total of only 93 were produced before production of the bomber ceased in 1963. The vast majority of these were modified for used as tankers or maritime reconnaissance aircraft; only the original 10 shown at the air show and nine newer 3MD13 models served on nuclear alert with the Soviet bomber force.

Neither the M-4 nor the 3M ever saw combat service, and none were ever modified for low altitude penetration attack, as the American B-52 Stratofortresses were. No Bisons were ever exported to the Soviet Union's allies. The last aircraft, an M-4-2 fuel tanker, was withdrawn from service in 1994.

So the legacy of the Bison was largely preserved in the aftermath of the bomber gap controversy which through American miscalculations resulted in a massive buildup of the United States Air Force's strategic bomber fleet, which peaked at over 2,500 strategic bombers to counter the perceived Soviet threat. Realizing that the mere belief in the gap was an extremely effective funding source, a series of similarly nonexistent Soviet military advances were constructed in the following years of the Cold War in a tactic now known as "policy by press release." Other deceptions included claims of a nuclear-powered bomber, supersonic VTOL flying saucers, and ultimately only a few years after the "bomber gap" came a "missile gap."

Shturmovik Reborn: The Soviet Air Force and the Sukhoi Su-25

With the success of the Ilyushin design Il-2 Bark and Il-10 Beast ground attack platforms employed against Nazi forces during the Great Patriotic War, Soviet commanders realized the need for capable close air support aviation to assist ground forces early on. As technological advancements progressed and jet technology began to overtake the development of propellor driven designs, the problem soon began to arise in the form of replacement of these earlier designs in the ground attack capacity. By the 1960's Soviet fighter bombers in active service were unsuitable for ground attack roles. Their high operational speeds made them unsuited for delivering precision strikes and their loiter and time on target were minimal. Another drawback to existing Soviet fighter bombers such as the Sukhoi Su-7/ Su-17 Fitter, Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-21 Fishbed and Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-23 Flanker was their lack of suitable armored plating to protect the pilot and vital systems from ground fire. Having researched the influences that made the Ilyushin designs so successful during the Great Patriotic War and taking into consideration the drawbacks of existing fighter bomber designs, Pavel Sukhoi founder of the Sukhoi Design Bureau along with a team of aerospace engineers began preliminary design work for a new design that would meet the requirements of both the of the Ministry of the Aviation Industry and the Ministry of Defense.

The official request for a new battlefield close air support aircraft was issued by the Soviet Air Force in March of 1969. Four Soviet design bureaus responded to the announcement of the competition: Sukhoi, Yakovlev, Ilyushin and Mikoyan-Gurevich. Sukhoi's design officially designated as the T8 had been finalized in 1968 with the first two prototypes being built in 1972. The first of the prototypes was unveiled during the Soviet May Day holiday of 9 May 1974, however it would not take to the air until 22 February 1975. The competition was soon narrowed down between the Sukhoi T8 design and the Ilyushin designed Il-42. However following a series of fly offs and trials before the Soviet Defense Ministry, the Sukhoi design was chosen over the Ilyushin type and awarded a production contract.

Production of the Sukhoi design now designated as Su-25 would begin at Factory No.31 located in Tbilisi in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. With the first production models being delivered to the Soviet Air Force in 1978. It would be given the NATO reporting code of 'Frogfoot'.

The Su-25 has an all metal trapezoidal wing mounted at the shoulder of the fuselage, and a conventional tailplane and rudder system. The overall construction of the aircraft utilizes different metals and materials with nearly 60% of the airframe being made of aluminum, 19% steel, 13.5% titanium alloy, 2% magnesium alloy and 5.5% other materials. Initial versions of the Su-25 were equipped with twin R95Sh non-afterburning turbojets. The aircraft was designed as a single seat airframe with a single GSh-30-2 30mm cannon mounted in a compartment beneath the cockpit. The pilot sits in a titanium bathtub similar to that of the American Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt and entry into the cockpit is by a hinged canopy. The cockpit is relatively cramped and the pilot sits rather low in the enclosure a trade off in visibility for protection to the pilot at the controls. A periscope assembly is attached to the top of the canopy in an attempt to improve rearward visibility for the attack pilot.

The Su-25 does not have a television guidance system but does have a nose mounted laser rangefinder for target designation capabilities an a DISS-7 doppler radar for navigation. It could operate in both day and night environments and is equipped with the SO-69 identification system, which serves as a friend or foe designation transponder. For defensive measures, the Su-25 has several countermeasures installed on the airframe, the first is the SPO-15 radar warning receiver and the second is a system of chaff and flare dispensers capable of punching off 250 flares and chaff to confuse enemy guidance systems.

In its role of close air support, the Su-25 would mount weaponry on eleven hardpoints with the capability of carrying 8,818lbs of ordnance. Weaponry included an assortment of UV-32-57 57mm, B8M1 80mm rocket pods, S-24 240mm or S-25 330mm rockets, Kh-23, AS-9, Kh-25L, Kh-29 air to surface missiles or an assortment of 1,000lb bombs with 250 rounds of 30mm ammunition for the GSh-30-2 30mm cannon.

The first Soviet Air Force unit to receive the new type was the 200th Independent Attack Squadron, based at Sitalcay air base in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. The first eleven aircraft arrived at Sitalchay in May 1981. Soon afterwards this unit would be deployed to Afghanistan in support of Soviet military operations in the embattled nation. Throughout the duration of the Soviet counterinsurgency campaign against the Islamic Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, Soviet Air Force Su-25s launched nearly 139 guided missiles of varying types against Mujahideen positions in the wartorn nation. On average, each Su-25 flew 360 combat sorties per year, a total considerably higher than that of any other combat aircraft type in Afghanistan. By the end of the war, nearly 50 Su-25s had been deployed to airbases in Afghanistan and carried out a total of 60,000 combat sorties. Between the first deployment in 1981 and the end of the war in 1989, 21 aircraft would be lost in combat operations.

Su-25s were also deployed to airfields in the German Democratic Republic and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic to support Soviet interests in the region and to counter NATO forces in the region. In the event of war with NATO, Su-25s would serve in similar roles to that of the American A-10 and British Harrier attack platforms flying close support missions against NATO positions utilizing their slow speed and design characteristics to get down in the folds of the terrain of the low altitude structure and provide accurate support for advancing Warsaw Pact forces. For self defense against intercepting NATO fighters, the Su-25 could carry the AA-2 or AA-8 air to air missile. The 30mm cannon would be employed against armored targets although, the Su-25s 30mm cannon did not match the rate of fire of the American GAU-8 Avenger 30mm cannon mounted on the A-10.

Like all Soviet designs, the Su-25 was a rugged machine designed with simplicity in mind and with the capability to operate in the harshest of conditions from roughly prepared airfields. It would go on to serve in successor nations after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and continues as a potent battlefield platform in the modern age.

A Tarnished Legacy: The F-104 and the Starfighter Crisis

When the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter first flew in 1954, it was a state of the art interceptor capable of achieving speeds in access of Mach 1 or the speed of sound. The single seat, single engined fighter and its sleek slender silhouette would go on to serve with a number of Air Forces worldwide including not only the United States Air Force, Italian Aeronautica Militare, Royal Canadian Air Force and Japanese Air Self-Defense Force. Nowhere would the reputation and service of the F-104 be more diverse and defined than in the service of the West German Luftwaffe. In West Germany, the Starfighter would be developed into a fighter bomber with nearly 35% of all F-104s produced by Lockheed being manufactured for Luftwaffe service.

The aircraft was designed as a high altitude interceptor by legendary Lockheed aeronautical engineer Kelly Johnson. Part of the appeal of the aircraft was its radical wing design utilizing a small trapezoidal shaped wing positioned midbody of the fuselage versus the standard swept wing design of most fighter aircraft. The stabilator was mounted atop the vertical tail fin to reduce the effects of inertia coupling in high speed flight and the type utilized the power of the General Electric J79 turbojet engine to propel it to supersonic speeds. As a result of its design, the Starfighter had excellent acceleration capabilities, rate of climb and top speeds however the aircraft had poor turn performance at sustained speeds and was sensitive to control inputs which could prove unforgiving in the event of pilot error. Under license from Lockheed, F-104s would be manufactured by some of Europe’s finest aeronautical firms including Dornier, Fokker and Messerschmitt of West Germany, Fiat of Italy and SABCA of Belgium. A total of 915 F-104s would be delivered to the Luftwaffe with 30 of these airframes being F-104F standard, 444 being F-104G models operated as multirole fighter bombers, 136 TF-104G trainers and 355 RF-104 reconnaissance variants

The first F-104s to be operated by the West German Luftwaffe were F-104F models, two seat versions of the Starfighter used in the United States to train Luftwaffe instructors on the aircraft type. These initial airframes carried United States Air Force livery and serial numbers and were operated out of Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. After the initial pilots graduated from flight training, the airframes were turned over to Waffenschule 10 based out of Nörvenich in North Rhine-Westphalia. Upon arrival in West Germany, the airframes received a new Luftwaffe paint scheme and serial numbers and thus began the conversion of Luftwaffe pilots from the earlier F-84 Thunderstreak and F-86 Sabre airframes to the new F-104G Starfighter.

The first unit to begin operational conversion to the type was Jagdbombergeschwader 31 ‘Bölcke’ of Fighter Bomber Wing 31 ‘Bölcke’ also based at Nörvenich. Type conversion began in July 1960 with the Wing being declared fully operational in 1963. Following the fielding of JBG-31 with F-104Gs, additional units equipped with the type were Jagdbombergeschwader 32 based in Lechfeld, Jagdbombergeschwader 33 based at Buchel, Jagdbombergeschwader 34 based at Memmingen and Jagdbombergeschwader 36 located at Rheine-Hopsten. These units operated the type as multirole fighter bombers with two fighter wings being designated to use the type as solely interceptors. These units were Jagdgeschwader 71 located at Wittmundhafen and Jagdgeschwader 74 located at Neuberg. The RF-104G reconnaissance variant was operated by two Aufklärungsgeschwadern or Reconnaissance Wings. These units were Aufklärungsgeschwader 51 located at Manching and Aufklärungsgeschwader 52 located at Leck. The West German Marineflieger operated two naval air wings of F-104Gs these were Marinefliegergeschwader 1 at Schleswig and Marinefliegergeschwader 2 at Eggebeck. Marineflieger F-104G’s were operated in the reconnaissance and anti-surface warfare roles.  

The F-104G would also be a main weapon in the Luftwaffe’s nuclear delivery component. The nuclear weapons under the control of the United States, would be leased to the West German military for use. In the event of a nuclear strike, an F-104 would mount a single B43 one kiloton nuclear weapon along the centerline of the fuselage. Nearly 250 Luftwaffe Starfighters were committed to the NATO nuclear deterrent force with each wing maintaining six nuclear armed F-104s on twenty four hour alert status as part of NATOs Quick Response Force. As part of the QRF, Luftwaffe aircraft would be fueled and ready for launch within seventeen minutes of receiving the order to strike Warsaw Pact or Soviet targets. In this mission, Luftwaffe pilots utilized the Starfighter’s high speeds reaching operating speeds of Mach 1.4 to penetrate hostile airspace and deliver its deadly payload. After delivering their weapons, pilots would return to airfields in West Germany and be rearmed with additional nuclear weapons and redirected to secondary targets for further nuclear deployment.  

In the conventional strike role, the F-104G would typically carry the Lepus flare bomb, CBU-33 cluster munitions, 500lb iron bombs and LAU-3A unguided rocket pods. Marineflieger Starfighters would mount the Kormoran anti-ship missile on underwing pylons. The Kormoran had a range of nearly 23 miles and utilized delayed fuses for penetration of a ship’s hull structure before subsequently detonating deep within the vessel. The weapon was intended to detonate just above the ship’s waterline in an effort to inflict the maximum damage possible.

Problems began to arise almost from the beginning of the introduction of the aircraft into Luftwaffe service. At the time of the introduction of the Starfighter in 1961, there were two crashes. An intensification of flying regimens saw an increased accident rate with the type. As the years progressed, so did the number of crashes in the type. The year 1962 saw seven crashes, 1964 saw 12 F-104s lost, and in 1965 nearly 28 aircraft were lost in accidents. The lost rate calculated to nearly two aircraft lost each month. In 1966, sixty one F-104Gs would crash claiming the lives of thirty five Luftwaffe pilots. The alarming rate of loss of the aircraft soon became known as the ‘Starfighter Crisis’ with alarming records surfacing. The Crisis would peak with a loss rate of 139 aircraft for every 100,000 flying hours. The unsafe nature of the aircraft in Luftwaffe service sent the German media into a feeding frenzy giving the type derogatory nicknames such as Witwenmacher ‘Widowmaker’, Fliegender Sarg ‘Flying Coffin’, Fallfighter ‘falling fighter’ or Erdnagel ‘Ground Nail’. The surrounding controversy over the accident rate of Luftwaffe Starfighters also led to the rather unflattering joke of How does one own a Starfighter? Just buy property anywhere in West Germany and wait and sooner or later one would crash into the property.

The problem of the Starfighter Crisis, lie in the fact that the aircraft was extremely unforgiving in cases of pilot error and was extremely sensitive to control inputs. At the time of the types introduction, the F-104G was one of the most technologically sophisticated designs to enter service with the fledgling Luftwaffe and many of the pilots and ground crews of the Luftwaffe were accustomed to civilian jobs at the end of the Second World War. The lapse in aviation operations threw many pilots beyond the learning curve and they failed to keep up with the technological advances of jet powered aviation. As a response to this Luftwaffe pilots were sent to relatively short refresher courses in first generation jet aircraft which were underpowered in terms of the supersonic plus Starfighter. Luftwaffe ground crews were also introduced to the type with minimal to no maintenance experience on turbine engines, a reflection of the problem of national conscription into military service. As crews would come up to speed in learning to maintain the type, their service obligations would be completed and they returned to civilian life requiring a new technician to learn the maintainers course from the beginning.

Terrain and weather differences were also a factor. Luftwaffe pilots flying out of Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico and Luke Air Force Base in Arizona grew accustomed to operating the aircraft in the relatively favorable weather of the southwestern United States. When they returned to West Germany, many pilots found the north western European weather to be relatively poor. Flights in inclement weather coupled with flying at relatively high speeds, at low level through the hilly terrain of West Germany attributed to a great number of accidents designated as controlled flight into terrain or water.

On the airframe side, the F-104G was an improved version of the standard Lockheed F-104 Starfighter with a strengthened fuselage and wing structure. Other modifications included larger fuel tanks for increased fuel capacity, an enlarged vertical tail fin, strengthened landing gear complete with larger tires, revised flaps for improved control in combat maneuvering, as well as improved avionics suites like the Autonetics NASARR F15A-41B radar which was capable of both air to air and air to surface mapping capabilities, Litton LN-3 Inertial Guidance System and an infrared targeting sight. With the improvements to the airframe, it did not change the fact that the intended purpose of the aircraft was to be a high supersonic high altitude interceptor. In Luftwaffe service, the type was operated as a fighter bomber which often took the aircraft out of its intended element placing it in the unusual confines of low altitude operations. For operations in the low altitude environment the aircraft relied on the inertial navigation system which added additional weight to the airframe thus hampering its performance. The inertial navigation system was widely criticized as being a cause of distraction for the pilot as he would be monitoring the status of the system in low level rather than paying attention to the terrain around him in the low altitude structure. German media outlets often referred to the Starfighters as overburdened by technology and labeled F-104 pilots as overstrained and overburden aircrewmen.

Further damage to the Luftwaffe Starfighter fleet would come when the German media accused officials in the West German government of accepting bribes in the acquiring of the F-104 in West German service. The fallout and frequent scandals revolving around the crisis would lead to the passing of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 1977 by the United States government which restricted any American businesses, trading securities, citizens, nationals or residents from engaging in any corrupt practices regardless of whether or not they are present on United States soil and it governed payments of anything of value involving foreign officials, candidates, dignitaries or parties that could effectively involve national interests. 

Not to say that all loses of the type were induced solely by the pilot many accidents were also attributed to many causes which burden all methods of aerial transportation.  Many accidents were attributed to bird strikes where a bird ingested into the engine could cause problems, lightning strikes, pilot spatial disorientation, hypoxia and mid air collisions. Other causes included technical issues involving the J79 engine itself with its variable afterburner nozzle, contamination of the pilot’s liquid oxygen system for high altitude operation which led to loss of consciousness and malfunctions of the aircraft’s automatic pick up limiter system.

Compared to the NATO average of Starfighter pilots flying twenty hours per month, West German Luftwaffe pilots received roughly only thirteen to fifteen hours per month. The F-104 required thirty eight to forty five hours of maintenance for every hour flown and with hastily often poorly trained maintenance crews, the aircraft typically did not receive the required level of maintenance and the results were catastrophic.

One of the most notable accidents involving the Starfighter in Luftwaffe service occurred on 19 June 1962 at Knapsack, North Rhine-Westphalia when a formation of four F-104F two seat variants of the Starfighter were practicing formation flying to celebrate the types introduction into active service. The aircraft crashed together following a descent through a cloud formation killing three Luftwaffe pilots and one United States Air Force pilot. The cause of the crash was determined to be spatial disorientation of one of the inexperienced Luftwaffe pilots causing his aircraft to fly into his wingman. All four aircraft were destroyed and this incident resulted in the Luftwaffe instituting a policy of forbidding an aerobatic formation flying display team.

In 1966, Johannes Steinhoff, a veteran Luftwaffe pilot of the Second World War accredited with 176 aerial victories took over command of the Luftwaffe as the Inspekteur der Luftwaffe ‘Chief Inspector of the Air Force’. One of Steinhoff’s first moves following his instatement as the head of the Luftwaffe was to ground the entire F-104 fleet. He was determined not to release the aircraft back into active service until he felt the underlying causes to the high loss rate of F-104 Starfighters was resolved if not eradicated. During his investigation, Steinhoff noted that F-104s of the United States Air Force and other non-German Air Forces had significantly lower accident rates in the aircraft. With further investigations, Steinhoff and his Deputy Inspector Günther Rall also a fellow World War II veteran would journey to the United States to learn to pilot the F-104 Starfighter under instruction and supervision by the type’s designers at the Lockheed facility in Burbank, California. During their period in the United States, Steinhoff and Rall annotated the lack of inclement weather and mountain flight training combined with the handling characteristics such as sharp high G turns could lead to accidents.

Upon return to West Germany, Steinhoff and Rall introduced a redesigned training regimen for Luftwaffe Starfighter pilots and as a response loss rates dropped to being comparable to those of other Starfighter operators.  With an improved safety record, a new problem soon emerged in the form of structural failure in the wing structure. The F-104 design calculations had not taken into consideration the high number of G force loading cycles that would be exerted on the airframes operated by the Luftwaffe. Another issue that Steinhoff and Rall noted lie in the ejection seat operated in Luftwaffe Starfighters. Lockheed had initially supplied the Luftwaffe F-104Gs with the C-2 ejection seat which used a powerful 10100 booster rocket manufactured by the Talley Corporation. The use of the Talley rocket was said to give the ejection seat a zero-zero capability however they caused a destabilizing effect following ejection from the aircraft. On 8 March 1967, the F-104 fleet was grounded again and all C-2 series ejection seats were replaced with improved Martin Baker Mk-GQ7A zero-zero ejection seats.

Initial successes in the improvement of the Starfighter’s safety record were soon overshadowed with F-104 crashes climbing to between fifteen to twenty aircraft each year between 1968 and 1972. The attrition rate would continue at a 9:11 ratio each year until the type was phased out and replaced by the Panavia Tornado. The subsequent jump in the loss rate of the aircraft led to the West German government in Bonn to approve the order of 50 additional F-104Gs to replace aircraft lost in accidents. Finally in 1971, the decision was made to begin the retirement of the F-104 from Luftwaffe service. The first units to withdraw the F-104G were the Reconnaissance Wings AKG 51 and AKG 52 which adopted the McDonnell Douglas RF-4E Phantom II in its Wild Wiesel configuration for tactical reconnaissance. These were followed by JG71 and JG74 in 1972 and 1973 when they received F-4E Phantom IIs as air superiority fighters and JBG36 received Phantoms in 1976.

The first Marineflieger unit to phase out the F-104G was MFG1 which phased out its F-104s in favor of the Panavia Tornado in July 1982. The F-104G training school at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona was closed down and by the middle of the 1980s, the Luftwaffe had relegated the F-104G Starfighter to secondary roles. The last Luftwaffe unit to operate the F-104G Starfighter was JBG34 which finally retired its Starfighters upon receiving the Panavia Tornado in 1987. Only a handful of F-104Gs and TF-104Gs remained in Luftwaffe service operated out of Manching for various test, development and research programs. The last flight of the F-104G in Luftwaffe service would occur on 22 May 1991 when the F-104G a formidable airframe flew into history as part of the resurgence of Germany’s defensive capability.

By the time of its retirement, the Luftwaffe would lose some 270 F-104s to accidents, equaling roughly 30 percent of West Germany's entire Starfighter fleet. Even more costly is the irreplaceable human toll of the deaths of nearly 110 German pilots at the controls of the Starfighter. The Starfighter's legacy in German military service is one of admiration, intrigue and in certain circles discontent. Many pilots had a love-hate relationship with the type, but in the end it would be the lack of proper training, maintenance, unforeseen technical issues and operating the type in environments it was not designed to operate in that would tarnish the image of the supersonic interceptor. While certain circles champion the F-104, others still hold the aircraft in negative light unable to move past the derogatory titles such as 'lawn dart' or 'tent peg'.   

Wernher von Braun: The Father of the Ballistic Missile

One of the mainstays of the Cold War was the employment on both sides of the Iron Curtain of massive numbers of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles more commonly called ICBMs for short. Upon notification at the push of a button, a weapon can be launched utilizing rocket technology to propel a potentially destructive warhead on a one way trip anywhere on the globe to deliver a destructive message upon the enemy. The threat of nuclear destruction from the heavens was the stuff of nightmares but yet an ever present danger in throughout the years of the Cold War. Each side was always trying to best the other. Rocketry has become a weapon of war on a scale never seen before capable of not only breaching the outer perimeters of our atmosphere but also in propelling weaponry at speeds inconceivable years before at such great distances that detection or interception is difficult. The development of the ICBM is derived of technology envisioned decades earlier as the brainchild of one man. His name was Wernher von Braun.

Born Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun in Wirsitz, in the province of Posen at the time part of the German Empire on 23 March 1912, Wernher was the second of three sons born to a Magnus Freiherr von Braun and Emmy von Quistorp. He was born into an aristocratic family thus inheriting the title of Freiherr or 'Baron' and he could trace his family heritage to medieval European royalty as a descendant of Phillip III of France, Valdemar I of Denmark, Robert III of Scotland, Edward III of England, Mieszko I of Poland and ultimately Charlemagne. In his early years von Braun developed a passion for astronomy. Following the signing of the armistice and the end of the First World War, Wirsitz was transferred from Germany to Poland and the von Braun family moved to Germany settling in Berlin. It was here that he had his initial encounters with rocketry when he at the age of 12 was inspired by the speed records set by Max Valier and Fritz von Opel in rocket propelled cars. After blowing up a weapon to which he had attached fireworks he was arrested only to be released shortly thereafter.

An avid amateur musician, he learned to play both Beethoven and Bach from memory. By 1925, he was enrolled in a boarding school at Ettersburg Castle near Weimar. With his passion for space travel and rocketry fuelling his young mind, he acquired an influential work on the subject the book Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen or By Rocket into Interplanetary Space written by Hermann Oberth a leading rocket pioneer. After being transferred to Hermann-Lietz-Internat, another boarding school located on the island of Spiekeroog; von Braun applying himself to the studies of physics and mathematics determined to pursue his interest in rocket engineering.

By 1930, he was attending the Technische Hochschule Berlin or 'Berlin Institute of Technology' where he became a member of the Verein für Raumschiffahrt 'Spaceflight Society'. He obtained a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Institute in 1932. From his early exposure to rocket sciences he developed the conclusion that rocket science was not advanced enough to support space exploration and would require more aspects of science than were currently applied to the field. He enrolled in the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin for post graduate studies in the fields of physics, chemistry and astronomy where he would receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Physics in 1934. He received encouragement for his studies from the high altitude balloon pioneer Auguste Piccard.

Coinciding with his developing interests in rocket science, the situation in Germany has been shaped in years of turmoil and political upheaval. After the end of the First World War and the abdication of the German monarchy, the Weimar Republic had been instated with a liberal democracy. President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg, a former Prussian General Field Marshal during the First World War initiated dictatorial emergency powers and reinstated the position of Chancellor of Germany by 1930. Germany would see several Chancellors in Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen and Kurt von Schleicher before finally Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor with the ascent of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or National Socialist German Workers Party commonly abbreviated as NSDAP or Nazi Party in 1933. With his focus on his doctoral studies, von Braun seemed for the most part unaware of the changes sweeping across Germany at the time. As a German born to an aristocratic family, he was patriotic towards his country but rocketry was his main focus. On 12 November 1937 he applied for membership in the Nazi Party and was assigned the membership number 5,738,692.

His activities with the Verein für Raumschiffahrt caught the attention of the Reichswehr, Germany's armed forces in 1932. While attending one of the launches of von Braun's rockets, Army officers took notice of the young engineer and the promise that he garnered towards the development of German rocket science. Walter Dornberger, an Artillery officer in the German Army Ordnance Corps presented von Braun with the opportunity to further develop his rockets through researching military applications for rockets. Presented with the opportunity of having his rocket research paid for at the behest of the German Army, von Braun couldn't refuse and accepted Dornberger's offer. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles following the end of the First World War, Germany had been prohibited the development of military aviation applications, rocketry had not been barred from research and thus development in rocketry was rapidly advancing.

In 1934, Wernher von Braun completed a work on the subject of rocketry in which he titled 'Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket'. Its contents were determined to be so vital to the national security of Germany that the document was given a classified status and transferred to the control of the German Army. Germany showed great interest in the works of American scientist Robert H. Goddard's works and regularly contacted him in the years leading up to the Second World War with technical questions and concerns. It was Goddard's works that von Braun incorporated into the development of his Aggregat or A series of rockets. The word Aggregat is a German word meaning 'The use of multiple appliances or machines to fulfill a certain technological function'. With von Braun now working with the German Army, the Verein für Raumschiffahrt which had rejected proposals from the German Army had a hard time finding funding for its own continued research and was dissolved in 1933.

With the dissolution of the Verein für Raumschiffahrt group, civilian rocket launches were banned by the new Nazi government with only rocket tests conducted for military purposes being authorized. The home for the advancement of these rocket tests and the location von Braun would come to call home was a large facility built near the village of Peenemünde in northern Germany located on the Baltic Sea. The Artillery Captain who had initially brought Wernher von Braun into military rocket science, Walter Dornberger became commander of the Peenemünde facility with Wernher von Braun as technical director. It would be here at Peenemünde in association with the German Luftwaffe that von Braun would contribute to the development of the A-4 ballistic missile and a supersonic guided anti aircraft missile designated 'Wasserfall'. Large amounts of research were dedicated to the development of liquid fuel rocket engines to power not only missiles but also aircraft engines and jet assisted takeoff devices.

On 22 December 1942, Adolf Hitler issued an order to initiate the A-4 rocket into the  Vergeltungswaffe or 'Revenge Weapon' program with aims of targeting London. Following the presentation of a film documenting a demonstration of the A-4, Hitler was so enthused by its promise that he made von Braun a professor of science. Following a bombing raid on the Peenemünde facility which killed several of von Braun's scientists by RAF Bomber Command, the first A-4 now designated V-2 for propaganda purposes was fired at England on 7 September 1944. Von Braun's rocket development in Peenemünde was in later years criticized for the use of slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora and Buchenwald concentration camps.Under the influence of SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, Wernher von Braun had been commissioned as an Untersturmführer 'Second Lieutenant' in the Allgemeine SS. Having expressed regret that he was not progressing his research towards his achievement of space exploration but that his scientific exploits were squandered on weapons for waging war, one that was not going well, Von Braun was arrested by Gestapo under charges trumped up by Himmler stating that he was a communist sympathizer with plans to sabotage the German rocket program before fleeing to England. He was only released from prison through the exploits of Walter Dornberger  and Albert Speer, the Reichsminister for Munitions and War Production.

With the Soviet Army near Peenemünde in 1945, von Braun assembled his staff and decided that enough was enough they had to surrender and bring an end to their war atleast. But to whom would they surrender to? It was decided that surrendering to the advancing Soviet Army was out of the question. The Soviets were well known for their brutal treatment of prisoners of war especially those who were documented members of the Nazi Party. It was decided that they would flee the Peenemünde facility and surrender to American forces. Under orders from SS General Hans Kammler, the team was to be relocated from Peenemünde to central Germany to progress their work. In the final days before the relocation, a contradicting report from Kammler ordered the scientists to join the Army and fight against the advancing Soviets. He and his team of nearly 500 associates fabricated documents and were transferred to Mittelwerk but not before ordering that many of his documents and blueprints be hidden away in an abandoned mine shaft in the Harz Mountains to avoid their destruction by the SS.

Following a car accident in which he suffered a compound fracture of the left arm and shoulder, he had his arm placed in a cast although a month later his arm would have to be rebroken and realigned due to negligent care of his wound. He was then transferred to the town of Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps.

Von Braun's brother Magnus also a rocket engineer approached an American Private from the 44th Infantry Division and announced his intentions to surrender to the United States on 2 May 1945. On 19 June 1945, two days before the area was to be turned over to Soviet authorities US Major Robert B Staver, Chief of the Jet Propulsion Section of the Research and Intelligence Branch of the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps in London and Lieutenant Colonel R.L. Williams transferred von Braun and his team to Garmisch near Munich where they were then flown to Nordhausen and Witzenhausen in the American sector of Germany to avoid their fall into Soviet custody. After being debriefed by American and British intelligence officials he was recruited under Operation Paperclip where he was relocated to the United States.

Upon arrival in the United States, von Braun along with his team were granted funding to continue rocket research under the United States government and in exchange their association to the Nazi Party would be expunged from their records. Once their records had been cleared, the government granted the scientists security clearances for work at some of the nation's most sensitive facilities. The first stop for many of von Braun's associates were to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to organize the documents brought to the United States from Peenemünde. Von Braun and his remaining Peenemünde team were sent first to Fort Bliss, Texas and White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico where they trained military personnel on the intricacies of rockets and guided missiles before helping refurbish, assemble and launch a number of captured V-2 rockets transported to the United States from Germany.

By 1950 and the outbreak of the war in Korea, Wernher von Braun and his team were transferred from Fort Bliss, Texas to Huntsville, Alabama where he would lead a U.S. Army rocket development team at Redstone Arsenal. The results of the research conducted by the team was the PGM-11 Redstone Rocket on 8 April 1952. The development of the Redstone rocket led to the first live nuclear ballistic missile tests conducted in the United States. A subsequent development in the development of the Redstone rocket was the first high precision inertial guidance system mounted on a rocket. Soon he would be appointed as Director of the Development Operations Division of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, where von Braun and his team would led the development of the Jupiter C series rocket which was essentially a modified Redstone rocket. The Jupiter C rocket would go on to perform three suborbital spaceflights throughout the 1950s before launching the West's first satellite known as Explorer I on 31 January 1958.

Von Braun remained determined to utilize his research in the subject of space exploration he began advocating space flight. With the Soviet Union launching Sputnik I on 4 October 1957, the way had been paved for von Braun to accomplish his dreams as the United States became determined to outdo the Soviets in the realm of space exploration. On 29 July 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration better known as NASA was established and in 1960, the Marshal Space Flight Center was opened at Redstone Arsenal. The Army Ballistic Missile Agency was transferred to NASA control under the provision that von Braun and his team be allowed to continue their research on a much larger rocket than the PGM-11 or Jupiter C series rockets which would be designated as the Saturn series rocket. Von Braun was designated as the Marshal Space Flight Center's first director presiding over the facility from July 1960 to February 1970.

From the successes of the Saturn program, the Apollo program for manned moon flights was developed and his dream for putting a man on the moon was realized when on 16 July 1969, one of his Saturn V rockets propelled the crew of Apollo 11 beyond the atmosphere of planet Earth to the lunar surface. Throughout the duration of the Saturn program, von Braun's rockets would put six teams of astronauts on the moon. He would be influential in the establishment of the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. He also envisioned the idea of U.S. Space Camp for training children in the fields of science and technology. After relocating from Alabama to Washington DC to take a senior level position in NASA, von Braun retired from NASA on 26 May 1972 with the realization that his goals for space exploration and those of NASA's were not one in the same. In his latter years he would serve as Vice President for Engineering and Development for the Fairchild Industries company and performing services as a public speaker at colleges and universities across the country.

He helped to establish the National Space Institute in 1975 and became its first chairman as well as become a consultant to the CEO of Orbital Transport und Raketen AG, or 'Orbital Transport and Rockets, Inc' a West German company based in Stuttgart. His health gradually declined following the onset of kidney cancer which forced him to retired from Fairchild Industries on 31 December 1976. He was later hospitalized from complications due to cancer and was unable to attend a ceremony in which he  was presented the National Medal of Science. Wernher von Braun would die on 16 June 1977 of pancreatic cancer in Alexandria, Virginia at the age of 65. He was buried at Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia.